News Briefs 6/4/2009

28 Changes…
Route 28 corridor travelers should plan an extra few minutes to their commutes for next few weeks. Work crews assembled a temporary traffic light early Monday morning, June 1, in Mount Tremper on the state-owned Highway.
The light is to stop traffic while the state department of transportation works on what is known as the Mount Tremper Bridge, a large span over the Esopus Creek located just an eight of a mile west of the junction of Route 28 and State Route 212.
But have no fear. DOT officials say there is nothing wrong with the bridge.
DOT spokesperson Allison Ackerman said the job is part of a large, two year project to maintain 20 bridges in a three county area. The project does not include Delaware County bridges.
“It’s upkeep. Maintenance. That’s all,” she said this week, noting that the job involves swapping out the bearings on the bridge and some painting.
While she was unable to say exactly how long the red light will be in place, staffers with Harrison and Burrows Bridge Construction, the Glenmont Firm contracted to do the work, said it is expected to be active for a little more than a month.
The good news is the light will only be operational between the hours of 7AM and 5PM on weekdays. It will be off during evening hours, weekends and holidays.
Tom Story, a DOT official involved with the project, said the light is portable.
“They’re gonna take it down every day,” he said.

No Smoking!
Ulster County’s new Smoke Free law governing all county-owned or leased properties went into effect as of June 1, after being pass approximately six months ago by the full legislature. Now the question is whether there will be enforcement of the new legislation along the county-owned railbed rightaway of the old Ulster & Delaware line, now leased to the Catskill Mountain Railroad.
More on that when we return to CMRR news in the coming issues…

Athletes Awarded
The Mid-Hudson Athletic League held their eleventh annual Senior Scholar-Athlete Recognition Breakfast on June 2, 2009 at Wiltwyck Golf Club in Kingston. A female and male senior were selected from each of 16 high schools in the MHAL League. Jennifer Crego of West Shokan and George Loizou of Shokan were there to represent Onteora High School.
Jennifer, who is ranked 13th in her class, played varsity tennis for 6 years, varsity basketball for 3 years and varsity softball for 3 years. George, ranked 28th, played varsity baseball for 2 years, varsity football for 1 year and varsity wrestling for 4 years.
In addition to them both being honored as scholar-athletes, Jennifer was also presented with the MHAL Sportsmanship Award.

Killer Caught
A Buffalo man has been charged with second degree murder after being captured by a quick thinking Shandaken Police detective.
Things started when an Erie County medical examiner’s autopsy of Constance A. Shepherd, 42 of Tonawanda, a suburb of Buffalo, revealed the cause of death to be a deep laceration to her neck, leading police to rule the death a homicide. Police said the cut was caused by a “sword-sized knife” that was located in another room of the Shepherd’s house. Police had issued a nationwide “attempt to locate” alert for her husband, Stephen Shepherd, 58.
Shandaken police Detective Fred Holland found Shepherd on Thursday, May 21 camping at a fishing spot after identifying his tan 2003 Dodge Neon, for which Tonawanda police had issued a nationwide alert. Holland said that, at first, he was unaware that it was the car in question, but had noticed the vehicle had been parked for a while, and was parked in such a way as to be hidden. When he questioned Shepard, he added, the man said he was there to kill himself because he had done something to “hurt my wife.”
When Shepard added that he thought he might have killed her Holland took no chances.
“I told to put his hands on the car and cuffed him,” he said.
Shepherd was taken to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office to be interviewed by Tonawanda police detectives, who were flown by helicopter into the Kingston-Ulster Airport in the town of Ulster later Thursday. He then was taken back to Tonawanda, where he was charged with second-degree murder, the maximum sentence for which is 25 years to life in state prison.

Bears Killed…
Three black bears were killed in nearby Greene County on Sunday, May 24 by order of the state Department of Environmental Conservation after they broke into several homes, an agency spokesman said. The mother bear and her two yearlings were shot by members of the Hunter police and state police, along with a conservation officer, Department of Environmental Conservation Region 4 spokesman Rick Georgeson said, noting that the bears were considered a nuisance because they had broken into four homes in the Hunter area over a period of time and tried to get inside others. He added the bears had become a problem because people were feeding them and the bears learned to associate humans with food.
“We believe they are the same bears that people were hand-feeding last year,” Georgeson said, adding that his agency had issued letters warning people not to feed them.
Georgeson said four black bears have been killed in the Hunter area this year. He said the first had also been a “home-entry bear.” Georgeson added that his office has had 52 complaints involving bears either on people’s porches, menacing individuals or damaging property this year.
Greene County sheriff’s Deputy Travis Richards said he was present when the mother bear and yearlings were shot. He said he had seen the bears exiting a residence on state Route 296 and helped chase them away using rubber buckshot issued by the Department of Environmental Conservation. The next day, he saw the bears again on a village street where they attempted to get into more residences. He added that in between those incidents, a biologist with the state agency ordered that the mother bear be killed if she was seen again.
On Sunday, the bears were found on Pine Lane trying to break into a shed and were followed down the road where they were seen trying again to gain entry to people’s homes, Richards said. He said the bears were eventually treed and killed per the order of the biologist and state.
To avoid bear problems, the state recommends people not feed them, stop feeding birds as soon as the snow melts, clean garbage cans with ammonia and store trash in clean, secure containers. People should also not burn garbage and should clean barbecue grills, among other precautions. Anyone who feeds a bear within 500 feet of a residence or structure can be fined up to $250.

The Jail Mess
The harassment cases surrounding the Ulster County jail and sheriff’s department, which surfaced a few weeks back with lawsuits filed by three female employees charging that a climate of harassment has become normal at the county facility and department, took on an odd twist in the past week.
On Wednesday, May 27, former Ulster County corrections officer Paul Wesoloski, dismissed last year based on allegations that he sexually assaulted a female guard, came forth to lay out his own countersuit against the department for having acted against him for being a whistleblower on a case of brutality within the prison, and opened up the possibility of his becoming a witness for the plaintiffs in the harassment case, including the woman he allegedly harassed himself, by outlining the culture of harassment he’d witnessed in his years working at the jail.
Wesoloski, accompanied by attorney Michael Sussman, spoke in front of City Hall nearly two weeks after his accuser in the assault case, Amy Negron, and three fellow female corrections officers held their own press conference to announce a federal lawsuit against Ulster County Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum and jail officials for what they claim was sexual harassment and discrimination.Although Wesoloski emphatically denies having sexually assaulted Negron and has filed a countersuit against his dismissal based on that charge, he has supported the claims of sexual harassment the women have leveled against the jail administration.
Sussman who, in an unrelated case, also represents three women suing the city of Kingston’s Department of Public Works for sexual harassment, said that he called the press conference to refute the allegations against Wesoloski contained in Negron’s lawsuit. According to Negron’s suit, which was filed in June 2008 (the other women joined the suit with their own allegations last month) on two consecutive shifts in December 2005, Wesoloski groped her, demanded sex and tried to coerce her into a utility closet.
Negron’s suit claims that Wesoloski had previously been accused of sexually harassing female inmates and routinely engaged in severe harassment of women co-workers. In September 2007, Wesoloski was acquitted of a criminal charge of forcible touching in Kingston City Court. A disciplinary hearing officer at the Sheriff’s Office, however, upheld the accusation and Wesoloski was fired. Wesoloski’s countersuit against Negron and Van Blarcum seeks reinstatement and $500,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
In an earlier lawsuit, Wesoloski sued former Ulster County Sheriff Richard Bockelmann claiming that he suffered retaliation, including a 30-day suspension for insubordination and leaving his post without relief immediately following the Dec. 30, 2004, incident in which he reported the alleged attack on an inmate. That lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge and is currently on appeal.
Stay tuned…

Speedway Suit
The environmental group Riverkeeper has put the Accord Speedway in nearby Rochester on notice that it intends to sue the racetrack for “continuously polluting a nearby stream and connected wetlands” with pesticides, anti-freeze, oil, grease and other petroleum products.
The pending lawsuit, announced on Riverkeeper’s Web site, contends Accord Speedway has used discreet locations to dump waste products into an area that includes a nearby trout stream.
Riverkeeper also alleges Accord Speedway is operating an open dump in violation of a federal Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ban on open dumping.
Riverkeeper said it served the notice on May 19 and is required to wait 60 days before filing a case in federal court.
“New York State is given the opportunity to step in and file their own enforcement case and the polluter is given an opportunity to halt all violations,” the group said on its Web site. “Following the waiting period, Riverkeeper will file a case in federal court if violations persist and the state has not enforced against the Speedway.”

Campaign Time?
The Ulster County Board of Elections will be hosting a Campaign Finance Seminar on Monday, June 8th from 9:30 AM until 12:30 PM at the Ulster County Office Building in the Legislative Chambers on the 6th floor. The seminar will be conducted by the New York State Board of Elections. You can register for the seminar or check for alternate locations and dates on the following web site – www.elections.state.ny.us.
You may also call the Ulster County Board of Elections with any questions or if you require further information at 845-334-5470.

Sentenced…
Jay Canosa, 44, of Shandaken, has been sentenced to one to three years in state prison on charges of felony vehicular manslaughter and felony vehicular assault stemming from a one-car accident last September that claimed the life of one of his passengers.
Canosa was driving a 1987 pickup with two passengers on Broadstreet Hollow Road in the town of Shandaken at about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2008, when the truck veered off the road and struck a large tree. The crash killed passenger Timothy Phelan, 48 of Phoenicia, and seriously injured the other passenger, Karl W. Bowers, 50, of Shandaken, who suffered multiple rib fractures and other injuries. At the time of the accident, Canosa’s blood alcohol content level was 0.11 percent, which is 0.03 points above the legal limit for driving while intoxicated. Prosecutors said Canosa admitted drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages at a local tavern before driving home to Shandaken.
In court on Wednesday, Canosa apologized to Phelan’s family, some of whom were present. He said Phelan was his friend and he was truly sorry.

Diversity…
Ulster Savings Bank will be joining the Mexican Consulate mobile unit in providing products and services to the Hispanic community. The event will take place at The Casa Villa Restaurant, located at 395 Albany Avenue, in Kingston on Wednesday, June 3rd through Sunday, June 7th
The Mobile Consulate will be issuing passports and consular ID cards to Mexican citizens who reside in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Ulster Savings Bank will also be offering the opportunity to open personal or business checking accounts to individuals that obtain or renew their passports or consular ID cards.
For more information about this upcoming community event, please contact Carlos A. Campuzano, at 338-6322, ext. 3552.

Childcare!
Laurie Rankin of the Child Care Council of Ulster County. will speak on the topic of “Affordable Child Care” on Tuesday, June 9th at 7:30 p.m. at the Pine Hill Community Center. Sponsored by the Shandaken Women’s Network, this informative presentation and discussion is open to men as well as women. Stay-at-home dads and caretaking grandparents are especially welcome. Rankin will present information on finding quality childcare for a wide variety of situations. She will also speak on how to open and succeed with a childcare business and the support that the Child Care Council provides to such businesses. Ms. Rankin is a former nurse who has operated her own childcare business and nursery school.
Women of all ages are also invited to join the Shandaken Women’s Network at 6:00 p.m. for a pot luck dinner and women’s networking meeting prior to Ms. Rankin’s program. Women should bring a covered dish to share and R.S.V.P.
For more information, contact Melody Newcombe at 688-5472 or visit www.pinehillcommunitycenter.org

Charter School?
The co-founder of a nonprofit group called Learner First has applied to open a charter school at TechCity, with a desired opening date of Sept. 1, 2010. An application for it says the school is planned to initially serve about 345 students.
According to that application, Learner First is run by Andrew A. Taylor and “uses 21st century learning tools” to tutor more than 1,500 low-income students in New York state, including several from the Hudson Valley. Because of the region’s high concentration of working artists and new emphasis on the development of alternative energy, the school’s curriculum would emphasize the arts and high-tech skills.
Taylor described the education model the school would use as a hybrid of face-to-face instruction and remote deliveries, such as online courses, that would allow educators to offer Advanced Placement and college credit courses that are not available in the region’s public schools.
Taylor, who worked as an administrator in the Rondout Valley school district for about a year-and-a-half, said he believes public schools in the area “are doing a great job, and this isn’t a statement against them.” Instead, he said, he wants to offer parents and students options. His application pointed to a lack of alternatives to the public school system for low-income students in the region as one of the reasons for the proposal.
According to the application, about 40 percent, or 138, of the charter school’s students would be expected to come from the Kingston school district. Taylor said that for each student who goes to a charter school, the public school district in which that student lives pays the charter school a portion of the cost per pupil.
The application estimates 34 students per district would come from Rondout Valley, New Paltz, Onteora, Saugerties, Red Hook and Rhinebeck, with costs to those districts ranging from $384,302 in Saugerties to $533,352 in Onteora.
The school’s first-year students would be in grades five through nine. Each year after that, another high school grade would be added. Taylor’s applications estimates that by the school’s fourth and fifth years, it would serve a total of 552 students in grades five through 12. There would be three classes per grade level with 23 students per class. The school would be housed in a two-floor, 50,000-square-foot space at TechCity.
Taylor said the application was sent to the State University of New York’s Board of Trustees and that the board will review it in the next few months. If the plan is approved, administrators would be hired in the spring of 2010, followed by teachers in the summer.
A public hearing on the charter school proposal has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. June 3 in the Kingston school district’s main office, 61 Crown St.

Real Standards
Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have announced an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools. The push for common reading and math standards marks a turning point in a movement to judge U.S. children using one yardstick that reflects expectations set for students in countries around the world at a time of global competition.
Today, each state decides what to teach in third-grade reading, fifth-grade math and every other class. Critics think some set a bar so that students can pass tests but, ultimately, are ill-prepared.
Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job. The benchmarks would be “internationally competitive.”
Once the organizers of the effort agree to a proposal, each state would decide individually whether to adopt it.
The nearly complete support of governors for the effort - leaders in Texas, Alaska, Missouri and South Carolina are the only ones that have not signed on - is key.
“This is the beginning of a new day for education in our country,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. “A lot of hard work is ahead of us. But this is a huge step in a direction that would have been unimaginable just a year or two ago.”
Duncan added that today’s patchwork system amounts to “lying to children and their parents, because states have dumbed down their standards.” He and other critics say that disparity becomes clear in places where students earn high marks on state tests but fall short on national exams.

RUPCO B-Day
On Monday, June 8, 2009, the Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO) will celebrate the 5th Anniversary of its NeighborWorks Homeownership Center with an open house event at the center’s base of operation at 301 Fair St. in Kingston. The anniversary celebration will honor Ulster County Executive Michael Hein for his leadership and support of both RUPCO and of the Ulster County Housing Consortium. Services of the HomeOwnership Center including its First Time Homebuyer Program, its home repair programs and its homeownership and foreclosure counseling activities will be showcased. Clients who have successfully used the various programs will be on hand to share their stories.
The open house event, which features showcases, refreshments and hourly door prize drawings, will run from 3 PM – 6 PM on Monday June 8, with formal presentations and awards at about 4:00 PM. Detailed information about the HomeOwnership Center and its services is available by calling 845-331-9860 or visiting www.rupco.org.

The Climate?
Saying that climate change is underway and the Hudson Valley must adapt to face the challenges it will pose, the Nature Conservancy has issued a report outlining a series of recommendations. The Rising Waters project, a multi-stakeholder scenario development process, considers the likely impacts of climate change on the Hudson Valley over the next several years, said Katie Dolan, executive director of the Eastern New York Chapter of the organization.
“We are working with Hudson Valley communities to figure out what the Hudson Valley and Catskills are going to look like in the year 2030 and how we can get ahead of the game in term of understanding the climate change impacts in the Hudson Valley using scenario planning,” she said.
The group’s findings include that climate change is already underway in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed and the local climate will become increasingly warm, wet and variable through at least the end of the century. Expected increases in frequency and intensity of extreme weather pose the most immediate and serious direct threats to human and ecosystem health and well-being, the report found. And, sea level rise due to global warming is a serious threat to human and ecosystem health over the course of this century.
A special “2009 River Summit” on Monday, June 8th at The Thayer Hotel at West Point, from 10 am to 4:30 pm will discuss these and other issues. Advance registration is required due to space limitations. To register, call Historic Hudson River Towns at 914-232-6583.

Invasives…
Talk about thinking locally with global repercussions… United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently warned that invasive alien species are harming the ecosystem services, livelihoods and economies throughout the world. In a message on the International Day for Biological Diversity, he said this unwanted by-product of globalization affects native biodiversity, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and even human health. The Secretary-General says the most cost-effective and feasible method of controlling the spread of invasive alien species is prevention and education. He added that it behooves his agency, and individual governments, to now start setting aside substantial funding for such fights.

Garden Tour!
“Shandaken in Bloom, A Garden Tour” will be taking place as a benefit for the Shandaken Democratic Party on Sunday, June 28 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with reservations already filling up. With gardening in Shandaken challenging, to say the least, yearly optimism prevails and a sturdy individualistic form of gardening has resulted. This year’s tour will showcase the renowned garden of garden designer, Dean Riddle, author of “Out in the Garden: Growing a Beautiful Life”. Additional landscapes feature fabulous shady woodland gardens, unusual organic vegetables, colorful cottage gardens, waterscapes and gardens with fantastic views. Advance tickets are available at Catskill Rose on Route 212 in Mt. Tremper, where the tours will start on June 28, and at Tenderland Home in Phoenicia. For more information call Michelle Spark at 688-2893 or Susan Robertson at 688-7493.

Trail Day!!!
The Hurley Rail Trail Committee is holding a “Trail Mixer” for National Trails Day that will include information on the exciting new Quadricentennial Geocaching Challenge alongside a host of special activities. Visit www.hurleyrailtrail.blogspot.com or www.townofhurley.org for more details.
The Catskill Center in Arkville is also planning key activities. Visit their website at www.catskillcenter.org for more info on what they’re doing.
And hey… get out and explore our trails!

Magog!
In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, stumping for the Iraq War, President Bush spoke to France's President Jacques Chirac and wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped via great war. Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac: "This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".
The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elyse Palace, baffled by Bush's words, sought advice from Thomas Romer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Romer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university's review, Allez savoir.
The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book in which he admits to having been stupefied and disturbed by Bush's invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and "wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs".
In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on "a mission from God" in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord.
There is a curious coda to this story. While a senior at Yale University George W. Bush was a member of the exclusive and secretive Skull & Bones society. His father, George H.W. Bush had also been a "Bonesman", as indeed had his father. Skull & Bones' initiates are assigned or take on nicknames. And what was George Bush Senior's nickname? "Magog".

Hippie Lawsuits
Those Summer of Love folks who revisit their Hippie Sacred Ground in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park every 10 years to celebrate the 1967 Human Be In that beget the Summer of Love that beget the Woodstock Generation and Age of Aquarius held a Press Conference on May 27 to announce their plans to fight legal maneuvers from organizers of the Woodstock Aquarian festival whose 40th anniversary is this summer. Council of Light leader and producer Boots Hughston, Former District Attorney Terrence “Kayo”Hallinan, Woodstock Festival veteran musician and attorney Barry “The Fish” Melton and Country Joe McDonald, along with Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers and Super Lotto Winner Dennis “Mr. Lucky” Sanfilippo, announced that despite a Cease and Desist demand from NY’s Woodstock Ventures, their day long free show on October 25th is fully permitted and financed and will take place as scheduled. Hughston also noted formal complaints against what they say is “an old fashioned shakedown tactics for money” by Woodstock producer Michael Lang.
Lang whose own 40th Anniversary of Woodstock event never materialized has been using a high-powered NY law firm to demand payment from any event in the world that plans to celebrate the “40th Anniversary of Woodstock” or use art or phrases that contain “peace & music” according to those who organized the press conference.
The group of Summer of Love and Woodstock veterans will demand that Woodstock Ventures recognize that the “Peace, Love & Music they wish to cash in on was created in San Francisco.” The wish to remind Lang that no less than 18 of acts that performed at the original Woodstock flew in from San Francisco.
Lang’s memoirs of putting together the festival are about to come out next month, co-written by fellow Phoenicia School parent Holly George-Warren.

Library Fair!!!
For some it’s as much a part of summer as baseball and fireworks…the annual Phoenicia library Fair, set this year for Saturday, June 6th, has become known as one of the best places in the region to get great deals on all sorts of plants, shrubs, groundcovers and all things green.
Library Fair Volunteer Veronica Rowe said now is a good time to start dividing perennials and potting up groundcovers, shrubs, houseplants, and herbs and donate them for the sale.
“Label the plants with their names, and we will help them find a happy new home,” she said. “You can bring your plants to the library on Friday, June 5 or early in the morning on June 6. If you need to have them picked up, call the library and we’ll try and arrange it. So gardeners and plant lovers, please help us out. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Library Fair. It’s always a lot of fun and a great opportunity to pick up some new plants. It’s all for a wonderful cause: the Phoenicia Library.”
The Library, and the Fair, are located on Main Street in the Village across from Sweet Sue’s. Just listen for the music by this year’s key entertainer… Uncle Rock!

Hail Caesar?
Once reserved for cases in which the life of the baby or mother was in danger, the cesarean is now routine. The most common operation in the U.S., it is performed in 31% of births, up from 4.5% in 1965.
With that surge has come an explosion in medical bills, an increase in complications - and a reconsideration of the cesarean as a sometimes unnecessary risk.
It is a big reason childbirth often is held up in health care reform debates as an example of how the intensive and expensive U.S. brand of medicine has failed to deliver better results and may, in fact, be doing more harm than good.
"We're going in the wrong direction," said Dr. Roger A. Rosenblatt, a University of Washington professor of family medicine who has written about what he calls the "perinatal paradox," in which more intervention, such as cesareans, is linked with declining outcomes, such as neonatal intensive care admissions. Maternity care, he said, "is a microcosm of the entire medical enterprise."
As the No. 1 cause of hospital admissions, childbirth is a huge part of the nation's $2.4-trillion annual health care expenditure, accounting in hospital charges alone for more than $79 billion.

Rainbow Time...
The 38th annual Rainbow Family World Peace Gathering will be held in one of New Mexico's breathtaking National Forests, July 1-7. The annual reunion welcomes “everyone with a bellybutton” to a cost-free, rustic, back-to-nature encampment in a different National Forest across the nation every summer, culminating in a massive silent prayer for world peace on July 4th. Clean-up runs from July 8 to completion. Past Gatherings have landed in New Mexico in 1995 and 1977.
The Rainbow attendees are an international affiliation of individualswho gather together on public land to create a cooperative village thatfocuses on peace, love, healing and respect for the earth. Many maintain a self-conscious connection with our own region’s Woodstock festival of 40 years ago, and have long created something of a presence in Ulster County and environs.
A specific location has not yet been selected for this year's Gathering, but volunteers have been scouting both the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests, working with the United States Forest Service (USFS) to home in on the best possible site.
For more information go to www.welcomehome.org, a website run by Gathering enthusiasts. Additional press releases are on the Rainbow press crew's website, www.rpcnews.us.